


Not A Weapon

by Not From Stars (Shadowcat)



Category: Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Gen, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-20
Updated: 2010-12-20
Packaged: 2017-10-13 21:59:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,156
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/142148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowcat/pseuds/Not%20From%20Stars
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She just couldn't do it any longer. They were tearing her apart with their constant fighting where she was concerned.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not A Weapon

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sexycereal](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sexycereal/gifts).



Elena Gilbert wasn't even sure where she was going when she got into the car and headed out of her neighborhood and out of town. All she knew was that she was not having a very good night.

To be honest, she hadn't been having a very good few weeks. That was why she had decided to just get into the car and drive for awhile. She needed to clear her head.

Her plans changed an hour or so later when she saw the dive of a bar that came up on the side of the road. That was _Damon's_ car. What was he doing here? As far as she knew, he and Stefan were back in Mystic Falls. She didn't even think twice before pulling into the parking lot. She didn't know why she was doing this -- except to get away from all of the things that were pulling her in two for a little while. Was this the smartest idea she had ever had? Not even close. Was she going to go with it anyway? Of course she was.

She locked the car door and headed into the bar.

She waited inside the door for a moment so that her eyes could adjust to the smoky lighting in the bar. When her eyes did clear, she had no problems finding Damon. He wasn't alone, though. Stefan was with him.

She started to move towards them when she realized that they were doing more than drinking. The two of them looked to be in an argument of some kind. This was just what she needed, of course. It wasn't enough that she couldn't get her brain to stop thinking for a few moments. No, she had to find the very two things her brain was focused on and find them arguing.

As usual.

Ever since she had realized that she was in love with two different men, her life had become a study in what was shaping up to be a retelling of a Greek tragedy. And it really was resembling a Greek tragedy because the two men in question were _brothers_.

Two brothers who were vampires.

Ok, so it was a Greek tragedy that had blended itself with a soap opera.

Stefan and Damon Salvatore. They shared a name, they shared blood and the problem was, they shared her heart.

It was never supposed to happen like this. Stefan had been the first one she had met and the one she had fallen in love with. There was something about him that had drawn her into him and she hadn't wanted to let go of him. He made her feel like she was the most important person in his world. When she was with him, she felt safe and she felt like her life was finally repairing itself from everything that had happened in the months before she met him. He told her that she wouldn't be sad forever and he was proving that statement to be true.

It was a nice feeling and she was enjoying the peacefulness of being normal again.

But things weren't meant to be normal for her it seemed. People started dying in town and strange things started happening.

And she met the brother that Stefan had never told her he had.

Damon was the complete opposite of everything Stefan was -- well, as far as she knew at the time. He was dark and domineering where Stefan was light and quiet. He seemed to be everything that was bad about the world around them. When she found out that he was the one attacking people, she couldn't reconcile that this was Stefan's brother because they were nothing alike.

Of course, this was all before she found out what he and Stefan were.

Vampires were something that were only supposed to be in stories and weren't real.

But Stefan and Damon _were_ real.

That should have been the end of her involvement with the Salvatores. It really should have and it was the plan. She had tried to make herself and Stefan believe that she didn't want anything to do with him after finding out what he was. She couldn't deal with it.

What was the saying about the road to hell being paved with good intentions?

It probably would have been easier if she wasn't so in love with Stefan and if she hadn't realized that Damon was changing before her eyes.

She wasn't supposed to fall in love with Damon, too. He wasn't supposed to turn into a decent guy that was interested in keeping her safe. He wasn't supposed to actually love her. But he did and she knew that he did.

She was tired of the constant tension that was between Stefan and Damon because of her and her heart. She was tired of having to be on guard with what she said and did all of the time.

Of course, going out driving in the middle of nowhere and finding them arguing in a bar was doing nothing for her mood.

Sighing, she shook her head and headed in their direction once again. She had gotten close enough to catch a few words and she heard Damon mention her name. When he said her name, she felt a warmth move through her and then her stomach clenched when she saw Stefan's expression as he looked at Damon.

 _They were fighting about her._ Again.

She wasn't dealing with this tonight. She had gone out to get away from this constant tension and fighting between the brothers. With a sound of disgust, she turned around and started walking towards the door. She had to get out of here.

Elena never made it to the door. She yelped as she felt herself lifted in the air and spun around to be pulled against someone. Her eyes widened when she saw the biker holding her tightly to him.

"You can't leave yet, baby," he said to her, alcohol fumes seeming to just roll over her. "You just got here and we haven't even danced yet."

Elena shook her head and tried to pull away. "No," she said. "I can't stay, sorry. I have to go. I'm late for a date."

"And you're going to be even later."

 

*********

 

"Damn it, Damon, she's not Katherine. She would never consider anything like what you're saying."

"I know that she's not Katherine. She's nothing like Katherine, little brother. For one, she's human. For two, she has a heart." Damon tossed back his drink and ordered another one. "Do you see any other way to work this out? Because I'm not just walking away from her now and I know that you're not."

"I love her, Damon. I don't want her hurt."

"And you think I do? God, Stefan, you will never stop assuming the worst about me, no matter what we do or what happens."

"That's not the point, Damon. The point --"

He didn't finish the thought because the same thing that suddenly had Damon looking like he was ready to kill someone had caused his temper to sharpen. There was a sound of fear that they heard over the music in the bar and they had recognized that voice. At they same time, both brothers turned to find the owner of the voice.

 _Elena._

Elena was being held by some burly biker and she looked scared, but defiant.

Their argument was abandoned just like that. Elena -- _their_ Elena -- was in trouble and it didn't matter what was happening between the brothers. They were both now focused on Elena and getting her safely out of the bar.

"Let me go," Elena said, trying to kick at the man holding her.

The biker laughed and leaned down apparently to try to kiss the girl trying to get away from him. Elena turned her head and just when she was about to scream for help, she saw two pairs of eyes that belonged to the two furious vampire brothers that she hadn't even noticed get up from the bar.

"You have ten second to let her go before I rip your head off," Stefan growled.

"Now, little brother, that's too long." Damon's eyes hardened at the biker. "Let's give him five."

"The lady and I were just about to dance so you little boys can just go back to whatever you were doing."

Elena never even noticed which brother made the first move.

Before she could get her bearings again, she had been jerked off her feet and was being carried through the bar and out to the parking lot. Before she could say anything, Damon was sitting her on the hood of his car.

"Stay here," he growled at her, his eyes full of rage. "I have to help Stefan."

Part of her brain was telling her that she needed to get into her car and get the hell out of here. However, she couldn't just leave the guys behind. Not when she was the reason they were now involved in what sounded like one hell of a bar fight.

Worried about them, she scrambled off the car and headed back towards the bar, only to find herself being jerked to a stop.

"I should have known you wouldn't listen."

Damon was beside her and Stefan was on the other side of her. Stefan looked at her with an emotion she couldn't identify.

"Let's just go. We need to get her out of here."

 

*********

 

They were back in Mystic Falls and back at the boarding house before the guys spoke to her again. Damon was reclining on the couch near her and Stefan was in the chair across from her.

"What were you doing there, Elena," Stefan asked her.

She sighed, not looking at either one of them. "I was out driving, I just needed to get away for awhile. There's been so much tension and fighting and I just couldn't deal with it any longer. I was driving by when I saw Damon's car."

"And so you decided to go into the seediest looking biker bar you had ever seen just because you saw my car?"

"I thought I could talk to you guys, just hang out with you when there was nothing else going on. But you were arguing... about me. I was trying to leave before you guys saw me when the guy grabbed me." She frowned for a moment. "Did you kill him?" She was suddenly worried that they were going to be in trouble because of her.

"No," Stefan said quietly. "I wanted to, but Damon wouldn't let me."

"Good. There was no reason for him to die just because he was drunk and stupid."

"If he had been stupid enough to hurt you, there would have been a different outcome."

"So now you're concerned about me being hurt," Elena said quietly. It came out a lot more bitter than she had intended. There were shocked sounds from both vampires. "No, that came out wrong. You guys do care if I get hurt, but you don't realize that you guys are hurting me." She lifted her head up to see both guys staring at her. "The constant fighting between the two of you is tearing me apart." She wrapped her arms around herself. "I feel like I'm being pulled in so many different directions and the two of you want me to make decisions and choices between the two of you."

She got up from the couch and headed to the door. She heard them follow her and she turned to look at them. "I _can't_ do this any longer. I care about you both, but I will not be used as the weapon that the two of you attack each other with. I'm not Katherine and I'm not like her at all. I won't help the two of you destroy each other over me or what you think I want or need. If you really gave a damn, you'd ask me what I wanted instead of just assuming that you always know what's best. Both of you do it and I'm tired of it."

"Elena, wait," Damon said quietly, reaching for her.

She shook her head, opening the door. "No. I'm tired of this and until the two of you can get along and not use me to hurt each other, I can't be around either one of you. It's killing me inside to see the two men I love constantly attacking each other because of me and you can't get past my resemblance to Katherine to realize I'm not her and I would never do anything like she did."

Stefan and Damon watched Elena leave from the door of the boarding house. They looked at each other after she had disappeared from sight.

It was very possible that they had just lost the person that had become the most important person in either one of their lives.


End file.
